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Chapter XII. The Night Watch.

"Say, pardner, we'll have to take watch and watch till this here pile is cleaned up, else them darned thieves 'll have mostly the whole heap from us."

So spoke the Senior Partner. Unto him his interlocutor made replication thus:—

"Why not work at it all night? We might manage it with a few bush lanterns, and finish it all by to-morrow night."

[A bush lantern is constructed by placing a candle within the neck of a clear glass bottle, the bottom of which has either been knocked off by a sharp scientific tap from a practised hand, or more artistically removed by pouring in a little cold water, and then thrusting the bottle end-wise in a fire.]

"No, Sirree! I don't vote for that. Man ain't a machine, that's a fact. You can't grease his cranks, fill his boiler, fire him up, and make him went as you can an engine. No! I want rest—I do. Guess you're the same. So I give my casting vote against the amendment, and declare the original motion duly resoluted."

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The night season at the Dunstan is peculiar. After sunset it becomes very dark for a while; then, without apparent cause, light diffuses itself with increasing intensity until midnight. During this interval, a bright red glare often shows on the hill-tops against the distant sky, and ever to the south or south-west. This is usually ascribed, by unaccustomed beholders, to bush fires; but it is really due to electrical agencies. Frequently the magnificent Aurora Australis streams upwards to the zenith in broad bands of yellowish white, and pale green, and fiery red—a gorgeous spectacle, such as never presents itself to the dwellers on the coast.⁵⁹ And shooting stars traverse the skies in such prodigious numbers, that the gazer incontinently concludes that a lively stellar frolic is going on somewhere overhead. I do not know any place in the Middle Island so well suited for an inland observatory as the Dunstan or Upper Clutha terraces.⁶⁰

The Co. kept watch. Mr George W. Pratt was on duty till midnight; then Harry relieved him, remaining on guard till daybreak. But the thieves came not.

Now their modes of watching were diverse. The Senior Partner rolled himself in a dark blue blanket, and laid himself down under a rock, whence he could command a view of the claim. Harry, on the contrary, paced the beach in the clear night-light, so that he could be seen a hundred yards off by any one possessed of ordinary optical powers.

The following night they exchanged watches. Harry, as before, marched fiercely up and down. At midnight he aroused the other member of the Co.

But the Senior Partner resolutely refused to stir.

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"I ain't a-going to trouble keeping any watch," he said, or rather shouted, in a very loud tone of voice. Never before had Harry heard him speak so loudly in ordinary converse.

"Then I must," cried Harry. "I shall not fold my hands and go to sleep whilst a lot of wretches are waiting to steal the gold—the gold"—(this crescendo; then diminuendo)—"the gold that I want so badly, and must have."

"Easy, pardner! Put her helm down—hard-a-port, else she'll bump, she will. Reckon this is my watch, and I'm responsible. Them wretches, as you righteously call them, have annexed a part of our stuff, and didn't happen on the best of it. No, sir, not by a long chalk. But they ain't a-coming for any more, for it didn't pay. So, in your humble cot reposing, you can take your rest in peace, pardner."

Contention was in vain. The Senior Partner declared his proposition to be voted by acclamation; and as Harry was very tired and weary, he easily gave way, went off to sleep with his mouth open, and soon gave forth sonorous evidences of the soundness of his slumbers. And ere long Mr. George W. Pratt breathed loudly and stertorously in chorus.

Then there occurred a strange thing. Out from the deep shadow of a propinquitous rock, stepped a man. No sound of footfall made he as he moved stealthily towards the tent occupied by the Co. One—two—three—four—five minutes he stood near it listening to the somnolent sounds that issued therefrom. Then he stole back to the covert whence he had emerged.

As he retraced his steps the Senior Partner quickly page 67rolled out of bed, ready clad in blue woollen shirt and dungaree continuations, with dark coloured socks on his feet, and a soft felt hat, curiously fashioned into a mask, on his face. Cautiously he crept to the door of the tent, and peered through a small round hole in the canvas. And this is what he saw:—

Three men, this time, came from behind the rock, and glided, one after the other, noiseless and ghost-like, towards the river, in the direction of the Co.'s claim. One by one they passed out of sight over the bank; but before the last disappeared, he remained awhile with his head on a level with the edge, gazing around, as if to assure himself that they were unobserved.

Little did he imagine that, at that moment, his life was in imminent jeopardy. He saw not the dark figure, lying flat on the earth only a few paces distant, or he mistook it for a block of stone. Yet it was with difficulty that the Senior Partner restrained himself from pulling the trigger of his trusty Colt; and so, without more ado, ridding the earth of a scoundrel.

Giving the vagabonds sufficient time to get down to the beach, the Senior Partner crept to the top of the bank and looked over. The trio were examining the sluice-boxes.

"Ho! ho!" chuckled the watcher. "Do they think we're such innocents as to leave any gold for nighthawks?"

And, in fact, the boxes were most faithfully cleaned up every afternoon. So the prowlers got nothing in that direction.

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Then—all oblivious of the listener—they held a consultation in muffled tones.

No. 1.—"Best get another lot of wash-dirt."

No. 2.—"Curse the dirt! 'Tain't worth taking."

No. 3.—"Better that than nowt."

In accordance with this final utterance, they went to the heap and therefrom filled three bags which they had brought with them.

Then there arose a dispute concerning the return route. Eventually they shouldered the sacks, and moved away along the beach. As they filed past the spot where lay the Senior Partner, a pistol-shot awoke the slumbering echoes of the Gorge, and the thieves incontinently renounced their plunder, and fled in terror, scattering as they went.